I called AJ Perri for their $99 ""Any Drain"" clog clearing special, which they honored perfectly. A professional looking man came quickly, listened carefully, and cleared the standing water in our pipes. For $99, I think we got a steal. Then came the ""gotcha""! He said our cleaning came with a free camera inspection, and scheduled another employee to come out later that day.\r
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The next employee came out and performed a camera inspection, which he said showed a total destruction of our main sewer line. He said we were leaking sewage directly into the ground, and put a flag marker on the spot in our brick patio under which this broken pipe was located. He said that our area has ""Orangeburg"" pipes, which were wartime pipe products made of pressed paper wrapped with tar paper instead of metal. They work fine, until they don't. When they fail, there is no repair except full replacement.\r
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The price? $3,750 to dig the first hole and repair up to 10' of pipe. If the rest of the 100' run needed replacement (only possible to know after this work is done), it could have run up to $20,000. But don't worry- the $99 drain clog would be credited against it! The camera technician tried every high-pressure sales tactic in the book to get me to sign, but I wouldn't without another estimate. Thank goodness!\r
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I called a local sewer repair company, Apollo in Keyport, NJ. Their guys do not share the professional appearance of AJ Perri, but on the plus side, they aren't crooks. Brian from Apollo found the problem 25 feet in the opposite direction from where AJ Perri said it was, and fixed the whole thing for $1,000. He quoted me a $750 dig fee, and told me it would probably be $1,500 total, but when the backhoe wasn't needed, he charged me less. The pipe was NOT broken in any way, just severely clogged. Not made of Orangeburg, either, but solid cast iron. After the repair, everything works perfectly. There were no pipes of any kind anywhere near the spot AJ Perri said was where they would dig. They were either trying to throw off any future bidders for the job, or else they just had no clue.\r
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Consider AJ Perri if you need a cheap drain clearing, but don't let them rob you for any additional work!!!
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